Visits Of Foreign Tourists In 2019 That Are Far From The Government's Target

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded that foreign tourists visiting Indonesia reached 16.11 million throughout 2019. This figure missed the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy's target of 18 million visits.

The figure of 18 million visits is a revision of the previous target of 20 million foreign tourists.

"The number of foreign tourist visits in 2019 amounted to 16.11 million visits. When compared to 2018 there was a slight increase of 1.82 percent, from 15.81 million visits, so we still have homework to continue to increase the arrival of foreign tourists to Indonesia," said the Head. BPS Suhariyanto in Jakarta, Monday 3 February.

The number of foreign tourists visiting consists of 9.83 million foreign tourists visiting through the airport entrance, 4.16 million sea port entrances, and 2.11 million land road entrances.

As for 2019, foreign tourists who came from the American region had the highest percentage increase, amounting to 14.16 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

Meanwhile, foreign tourists visiting from Asia other than ASEAN had the largest percentage decline, amounting to 10.3 percent.

Meanwhile, according to nationality, the most foreign tourists visiting Indonesia during 2019 came from Malaysia with 2.98 million visits (18.51 percent), followed by China with 2.07 million visits (12.86 percent), Singapore 1.93 million visits (12.01 percent), Australia 1.39 million visits (8.61 percent), and Timor Leste 1.18 thousand visits (7.32 percent).

Suhariyanto also said that the number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia in December 2019 reached 1.38 million visits, or decreased by 2.03 percent compared to the number of foreign tourist visits in December 2018 which totaled 1.41 million visits.

Meanwhile, when compared to November 2019, the number of foreign tourist visits in December 2019 increased by 7.52 percent.

This number consists of foreign tourists visiting through air entrances with as many as 838.98 thousand visits, sea entrances totaling 388.50 thousand visits, and land entrances totaling 149.59 thousand visits.

Previously, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menpareraf) Wishnutama said that the 2019 foreign tourist visit target was not achieved due to a number of events that somewhat hampered the growth of the number of tourists.

"Various disasters in Indonesia have greatly influenced the decision of foreign tourists to travel to Indonesia. Although many of these (disasters) have occurred in 2018, the impact of the news and fear is still happening in 2019," he said.

He continued, the 2019 Election democracy party and a series of demonstrations also greatly influenced the decision of foreign tourists to visit Indonesia.

"Apart from that, the China-US trade war has slowed down the economy. There was also a zero dollar polemic in several areas, a reduction in several flight frequencies, the cancellation of charter flights and slow bookings in the first quarter," he explained.

Wishnutama added, another thing that is also crucial is the status of travel advice to Indonesia by a number of countries.